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The United States draws conclusions from its mistakes in the battles on the Ukrainian front line, while the Ukrainian military is revealing US secrets.
Ukrainian servicemen shared new video, showing the US-made M1A1-SA Abrams tanks equipped with the Abrams Reactive Armor Tiles (ARAT) of the first generation. The additional protection system is seen on the sides of the hull of the tank supplied to Ukrainian forces. If the protective blocks then appear on the sides and roof of the tower, the ARAT system will allow to increase the protection of the Abrams tanks from the strikes of drones, RPGs and ATGMs.
ARAT consists of 62 tiles which weigh a total of almost two tons. They are designed to explode away from the tank when impacted by rocket propelled grenades. The force of the tiles’ explosions push away the force of the grenades’ explosions which reduces the damage to the tank’s treads. ARAT adds protection in a way that reportedly does not impede the tank’s speed.
There are two versions of the system, ARAT-1 and ARAT-2. Unlike its Soviet counterparts, the ARAT-1 is ineffective against kinetic munitions. The ARAT-2 is equipped in addition to the ARAT-1 to solve this problem, but the Ukrainian military probably still has not received these advanced systems.
The US military is learning during the ongoing battles in Ukraine. For example, the Bradley fighting vehicles were initially delivered to Ukraine without any additional protection and as a result, they immediately began to suffer losses from the attacks of small FPV drones and ATGMs. The Americans hastily began to equip their vehicles with dynamic protection, which increased their survivability.
Today, they are reinforcing their Abrams tanks, which are yet to enter the battles. LINK, LINK. The warmongers in Washington are acting very carefully to preserve the reputation of their tanks.
